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Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin Launches and Lands a Rocket for the First Time

  • New Shepard rocket flies to space before landing back on Earth
  • Reusable rockets are key to cutting the cost of space travel
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Watch: Blue Origin's New Shepard Space Vehicle Returns

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Jeff Bezos’s space-exploration company Blue Origin LLC achieved a key milestone: sending a rocket into space and then landing it safely back on Earth.

The flight and recovery of the New Shepard vehicle beat Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the quest to build a reusable rocket, a central goal for companies trying to cut the cost of lofting freight and astronauts into Earth’s orbit. SpaceX is working to recover boosters on an oceangoing barge so they can fly again, but hasn’t yet succeeded.